A New Spin on Free Speech

[Ninja Turtles Cartoon Fan]

The new forum member, milweskee, brought up something in another thread about the injustice he felt about there being a lack of free speech on this website.

At first, I just felt this was another rant by yet another "green member" who was upset at having been disciplined so quickly. But then I examined it some more and realized something I hadn't thought of before:

We (that is, all of us who partake in discussing things in these forums) are our own democracy.

Krang is the president. What he says is the law. You can take it or leave it.

The moderators are like his second-in-commands. When Krang takes a hiatus, the moderators are in charge. But they don't have the final say exactly. They still report weird goings-on to Krang, and then he deals with the situation(s) how he sees fit.

All the rest of us are just the citizens who "live" here. We follow the rules, even bend them at times, but we abide by the law Krang and his second-in-commands have set.

And this got me to thinking about what milweskee said. "There's no free speech here!" he cried.

And my response to that is: "Why?"

Now I know the obvious answer that comes to mind is, "Well, if everyone said what they really thought, Krang would be issuing Warnings and Bans left and right."

But is there a way to play it both ways? Meaning, is there a way to say what you really want, express how you truly feel, without suffering a backlash? Are we, as the citizens of Technodrome City, civilized enough to let free speech run its course?

Or are we just a bunch of barbarians who have to be policed 24/7?

What are your thoughts, people?

"Whoa! That's deep."
"Too deep for me."

Michaelangelo and Raphael, from "The Beginning of the End"